The 8 Parts of Speech | Chart, Definition & Examples

A part of speech (also called a word class) is a category that describes the role a word plays in a
sentence. Understanding the different parts of speech can help you analyze how words function
in a sentence and improve your writing.

The parts of speech are classified differently in different grammars, but most traditional
grammars list eight parts of speech in
English: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions,
and interjections. Some modern grammars add others, such as determiners and articles.

Many words can function as different parts of speech depending on how they are used. For
example, “laugh” can be a noun (e.g., “I like your laugh”) or a verb (e.g., “don’t laugh”)

Nouns
A noun is a word that refers to a person, concept, place, or thing. Nouns can act as the subject of
a sentence (i.e., the person or thing performing the action) or as the object of a verb (i.e., the
person or thing affected by the action).

There are numerous types of nouns, including common nouns (used to refer to nonspecific
people, concepts, places, or things), proper nouns (used to refer to specific people, concepts,
places, or things), and collective nouns (used to refer to a group of people or things).

Examples:
 I’ve never read that book.
 Ella lives in France.
 The band played only new songs.

Other types of nouns include countable and uncountable nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns,
and gerunds.
Note: Proper nouns (e.g., “New York”) are always capitalized. Common nouns (e.g., “city”) are
only capitalized when they’re used at the start of a sentence.

Pronouns
A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. Pronouns typically refer back to an antecedent (a
previously mentioned noun) and must demonstrate correct pronoun-antecedent agreement.
Like nouns, pronouns can refer to people, places, concepts, and things.

There are numerous types of pronouns, including personal pronouns (used in place of the
proper name of a person), demonstrative pronouns (used to refer to specific things and indicate
their relative position), and interrogative pronouns (used to introduce questions about things,
people, and ownership).

Examples:
 I don’t really know her.
 That is a horrible painting!
 Who owns the nice car?
Verbs

A verb is a word that describes an action (e.g., “jump”), occurrence (e.g., “become”), or state of
being (e.g., “exist”). Verbs indicate what the subject of a sentence is doing. Every complete
sentence must contain at least one verb.

Verbs can change form depending on subject (e.g., first person singular), tense (e.g., simple
past), mood (e.g., interrogative), and voice (e.g., passive voice).

Regular verbs are verbs whose simple past and past participle are formed by adding“-ed” to the
end of the word (or “-d” if the word already ends in “e”). Irregular verbs are verbs whose simple
past and past participles are formed in some other way.

Examples:
Regular and irregular verbs
 “Will you check if this book is in stock?”
 “I’ve already checked twice.”
 “I heard that you used to sing.”
 “Yes! I sang in a choir for 10 years.”

Other types of verbs include auxiliary verbs, linking verbs, modal verbs, and phrasal verbs.

Copular Verbs (Linking Verbs)

linking or complementary verbs. These types of verbs are a subset of state verbs as they are ways
in which to express a state of being.

The main purpose of them is to identify the subject, in which case they are followed by a noun
or noun phrase:

 She is my freind
 John and Sarah are solicitors

Or to describe the subject, in which case they are followed by an adjective or adjective phrase:

 He seems concerned
 Peter was happy about it

hey are used to add functional or grammatical meaning to other verbs. So rather than being
main verbs, they may be used with a main verb in order to change its function or meaning.

Auxiliary verbs are also know as helping verbs. The two main types of auxiliary verb are:

 be, do, have and will

 Modals (could, should, must, will etc)

'be' 'do' 'have' 'will' Auxiliary Verbs

Be, do, have and will are three auxiliary verbs that have a variety of functions.
The first of these is to make the various tenses. The key ones used are:

 be - am / is / was / were / been etc

 have - have / had / having etc
 will

Here are some examples:

 They have left (present perfect tense)

 She has been working (present perfect continuous tense)
 I am swimming (present continuous tense)
 She will eat it (future tense)
 He will have arrived by 6pm (future perfect continuous tense)

Modal Verbs
As modal verbs are auxiliary verbs, they again have to be used along with a main verb, not on
their own.

Modal verbs are followed by the main verb in the infinitive form (see below for infinitive verbs).
Here are the main modal verbs with an example and their function:

 He can read (ability)

 You ought to be more approachable (obligation/advice)
 You must / have to work harder (necessity)
 The car could break down (possibility)
 He might / may come later (possibility)
 I think they should be back by midnight (logical deduction)

Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal verbs are formed by combining a main verb and an adverb particle.

Some of the most common adverb particles used to form phrasal verbs are: at, around, down,
away, off, in, on, over, out, round, over, up:

 The film came out in 2014

 The class went on for 3 hours
 The plane took off late
 I can't make out what she is saying
 We can sort the problems out / sort out the problems
 They had little time to put the scaffolding up / put up the scaffolding

Adjectives
An adjective is a word that describes a noun or pronoun. Adjectives can be attributive,
appearing before a noun (e.g., “a red hat”), or predicative, appearing after a noun with the use
of a linking verb like “to be” (e.g., “the hat is red”).
Adjectives can also have a comparative function. Comparative adjectives compare two or more
things. Superlative adjectives describe something as having the most or least of a specific
characteristic.

Examples:
 The dog is bigger than the cat.
 He is the laziest person I know
 Other types of adjectives include coordinate adjectives, participial adjectives,
and denominal adjectives.

Adverbs
An adverb is a word that can modify a verb, adjective, adverb, or sentence. Adverbs are often
formed by adding “-ly” to the end of an adjective (e.g., “slow” becomes “slowly”), although not
all adverbs have this ending, and not all words with this ending are adverbs.

There are numerous types of adverbs, including adverbs of manner (used to describe how
something occurs), adverbs of degree (used to indicate extent or degree), and adverbs of
place (used to describe the location of an action or event).

Examples:
 Ray acted rudely.
 Talia writes quite quickly.

Prepositions
A preposition is a word (e.g., “at” & “by”) or phrase (e.g., “on top of”) used to show the
relationship between the different parts of a sentence. Prepositions can be used to indicate
aspects such as time, place, and direction.

Examples:
 Hasan is coming for dinner at 6 p.m.
 I left the cup on the kitchen counter.
 Carey walked to the shop.

Note: A single preposition can often describe many different relationships, depending upon how
it’s used. For example, “in” can indicate time (“in January”), location (“in the garage”), purpose
(“in reply”), and so on.

Conjunctions
A conjunction is a word used to connect different parts of a sentence (e.g., words, phrases, or
clauses).

The main types of conjunctions are coordinating conjunctions (used to connect items that are
grammatically equal), subordinating conjunctions (used to introduce a dependent clause),
and correlative conjunctions (used in pairs to join grammatically equal parts of a sentence).

Examples:
  Daria likes swimming and hiking.
 You can choose what movie we watch because I chose the last time.
 We can either go out for dinner or go to the theater.

Interjections
An interjection is a word or phrase used to express a feeling, give a command, or greet
someone. Interjections are a grammatically independent part of speech, so they can often be
excluded from a sentence without affecting the meaning.

Types of interjections include volitive interjections (used to make a demand or

request), emotive interjections (used to express a feeling or reaction), cognitive
interjections (used to indicate thoughts), and greetings and parting words (used at the
beginning and end of a conversation).

Examples:
 Psst. What time is it?
 Ouch! I hurt my arm.
 I’m, um, not sure.
 Hey! How are you doing?

Other parts of speech

The traditional classification of English words into eight parts of speech is by no means the only
one or the objective truth. Grammarians have often divided them into more or fewer classes.
Other commonly mentioned parts of speech include determiners and articles.

Determiners
A determiner is a word that describes a noun by indicating quantity, possession, or relative
position.

Common types of determiners include demonstrative determiners (used to indicate the relative
position of a noun), possessive determiners/possessive pronouns (used to describe ownership),
and quantifiers (used to indicate the quantity of a noun).

Examples: Determiners in a sentence

 This chair is more comfortable than that one.
 My brother is selling his old car.
 Many friends of mine have part-time jobs.

Other types of determiners include distributive determiners, determiners of difference,

and numbers.
Note: In the traditional eight parts of speech, these words are usually classed as adjectives, or in
some cases as pronouns.
Articles
An article (adjective) is a word that modifies a noun by indicating whether it is specific or
general.

 The definite article the is used to refer to a specific version of a noun. The can be used
with all countable and uncountable nouns (e.g., “the door,” “the energy,” “the
mountains”).
 The indefinite articles a and an refer to general or unspecific nouns. The indefinite
articles can only be used with singular countable nouns (e.g., “a poster,” “an engine”).

Examples:
 I live just outside of the town.
 There’s a concert this weekend.
 Karl made an offensive gesture.

Note: While articles are often

considered their own part of
speech, they are also frequently
classed as a type of determiner (or,
in some grammars, as a type of
adjective).